• Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
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• v.46 no.3
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• pp.1-25
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• 2015

This study aims to investigate current status and problems of bookmobile services in Korea, especially focusing on human resources, vehicles, and collections. To do this, a questionnaire that contained questions on basic information, human resources, vehicles, collections and information and communication technologies was developed on the basis of 8 standards and guidelines related to bookmobile services and 77 bookmobiles belonging to public libraries and Saemaul bookmobiles were surveyed. As a result, many parts of human resources, vehicles, and collections of bookmobiles in Korea were inadequate to standards and guidelines related to bookmobile services. At the end of this study, some suggestions are made for improving bookmobile services in Korea. First, the human resources, vehicles, and collections of bookmobiles need to be innovated. Second, national policies for bookmobile services need to be reinforced. Third, perspectives on bookmobile need to be modified from economic approach to information welfare approach.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.1565-1570
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• 2015

Background: In Aotearoa/New Zealand cervical screening programmes have reduced cervical cancer; however, half of cervical cancer cases among Pacific women are found among clients who had not attended cervical screening. Hence, we set out to determine health provider perspectives on barriers that prevent their services reaching Pacific women within Aotearoa/New Zealand. Materials and Methods: Twenty semi-structured interviews were conducted with health care providers, Pap smear takers and community workers in the Wellington region. Participants were asked their views on factors that enabled and/or constrained the participation of Pacific women in their cervical screening services. Results: Six interrelated themes influencing participation in cervical screening among Pacific women in the Wellington region were apparent: the funding and practice of service delivery; family always coming first; the cost of screening services; type of employment; the appropriateness of information; and attitudes to self and screening. Conclusions: Determining specific ethnic group actual health needs and meeting them contributes to overall improvement in New Zealand's health status. The results identified the need for improvements to the delivery of screening services including adapting cervical screening services to the requirements of Pacific women through more outreach services at alternate clinic hours; culturally appropriate practitioners; the ability to take up opportunities for health checks and foster long-term relationships; as well as appropriate monitoring and evaluation of approaches. Funding and reporting relationships also need to be compatible with the goal of improving outcomes for Pacific women. Further research into client voices for their particular needs to compliment the service provider perspective as well as minority groups is called for.

• Journal of Korean Library and Information Science Society
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.99-127
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to investigate the current status of services and programs of bookmobiles in Korea. To do this, a questionnaire containing 22 questions on basic information, scheduling and stops of bookmobiles, services and programs of bookmobiles, promotions and needs assessment and improvement requirements was developed on the basis of 7 foreign standards and guidelines related to bookmobile services. 74 questionnaires from bookmobiles belonging to public libraries and Saemaul bookmobiles were analysed. As a result, many parts of the results including operation days per week, stops per day, operation hours per stop, visiting cycle, circulation per day, circulation period and circulation volume and promotion conformed to foreign standards and guidelines but the others did not conformed to them. Also, there were more group differences in services and programs between bookmobiles belonging to public libraries and Saemaul bookmobiles than between bookmobiles in metropolitan cities and provinces in Korea.

• Journal of Korean Society of Archives and Records Management
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.25-42
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• 2007

In this study, evaluation criteria of information services of records centers and archives were prepared. Using those criteria, service evaluation was conducted in three records centers and archives as a case study. By visiting and observing the records centers and archives, current status, weakness, and problems were identified. Identified problems include limited professional staff, lack of policy, systems and reading room facilities, emphasis on retention rather than services, and weak outreach program. This is a preliminary study, and larger scale evaluation is suggested as well as the application of evaluation in other centers and supplementary evaluation criteria.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Library and Information Science
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• v.45 no.2
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• pp.415-437
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• 2011

The increased interest in consumer health information(CHI) has brought about a rapid increase in CHI resources. There are diverse means for obtaining such information, and one CHI acquisition route is the public library. In the U.S. public libraries, the demand for CHI reference services is increasing, and a variety of projects to promote these services are in progress. On the other hand, Korean public library services for CHI is at a very basic level, and thus a very small amount of such research could be found. This study drew suggestions from a literature review of research studies in the U.S. and Canada, and analyzed public library CHI services in Korea. The findings are as follows. 1) Only 17.25% of public libraries in Korea provided CHI service, and it evidences very low needs and awareness for CHI services in Korea. 2) Only three kinds of services including CHI-related websites, users training, and promotional and marketing were provided, and only 13(1.74%) of libraries surveyed offered more than two kinds of services. 3) There were no CHI librarians, nor did any librarians receive CHI-related education. 4) ILL services, outreach services, and cooperation with CHI- and medical-related institutions for CHI services were not found. Therefore, this study suggests that more research on delivery strategies for CHI services should be conducted in the future.

• Publications of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.17-28
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• 2019

The Korean Astronomical Society (KAS) Education & Public Outreach Committee has provided education services for children and school teachers in Cambodia over the past three years from 2016 to 2018. In the first year, 2016, one KAS member visited Pusat to teach astronomy to about 50 children, and in the following two years of 2017 and 2018, three and six KAS members, respectively, executed education workshops for ~ 20 (per each year) local school teachers in Sisophon. It turned out that it is desirable to include both teaching of astronomical knowledge and making experiments and observations in the education in order for the program to be more effective. Language barrier was the main obstacle in conveying concepts and knowledge, and having a good interpreter was very important. It happens that some languages, such as the Khmer of Cambodia, do not have astronomical terminologies, so that lecturers and even the education participants together are needed to communicate and create appropriate words. Handout hard-copies of the education materials (presentation files, lecture/experiment summaries, terminologies, etc.) are extremely helpful for the participants. Actual performing of assembling and using astronomical telescopes for night sky observations has been lifetime experience for some of the participants, which might promote zeal for knowledge and education. It is hoped that these education services for developing countries like Cambodia can be regularly continued in the future, and further extended to other countries such as Laos and Myanmar.

• Journal of the Korean BIBLIA Society for library and Information Science
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.25-55
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• 2011

These results of surveying public librarians can contribute to clearly identifying the status of CHI(consumer health information) services in Korea and to exploring future developments in CHI services. In this study, we investigated whether or not currently Korean public libraries are offering CHI services, whether or not they provide CHI reference services and the frequency of their use, and analyzed librarians' recognition of the need for Korean public libraries to provide the CHI services. The findings are as follows: 1) 70% of Korean public libraries are equipped with health-related books and medical journals, but the rate of libraries that are building CHI-related websites was very low at 5%. 2) The rate of providing the CHI reference services was only 30% of the surveyed public libraries. 3) 82.1% of public libraries did not provide educational programs related to CHI. 4) 82.1% of public libraries did not provide CHI-related services for vulnerable groups. 5) The rate of providing the CHI-related outreach programs and collaborating with CHI-related institutions was no more than about 20% each. These research findings can induce public librarians to provide CHI services in public libraries, and will contribute to activate the CHI-related research in Korea.

• Journal of the Korean BIBLIA Society for library and Information Science
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.47-77
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• 2011

Due to the growth of people's use of the Internet as well as interests in health, people's needs of health information have rapidly increased in public libraries. Nevertheless, there are few studies in Korea about users' needs for health information and services that public libraries can offer to support these user groups. In the current study, a comprehensive literature review was conducted in order to understand the role of public libraries and librarians in serving users with health information and to identify the types of consumer health information(CHI) services available to users in public libraries. As for the CHI services that public libraries can offer for users, the current study emphasizes and discusses the directions and guidelines for improving the following six approaches: 1) CHI collection and information resource building, 2) CHI reference services, 3) CHI user education and training program development, 4) CHI services for minority/disability/cultural diversity groups of users, 5) CHI outreach program development, and 6) CHI network development with medical libraries, academic libraries, hospital, and medical institutions and associations. Although most of the discussion in the current study centers on cases and services provided in the United States or other countries, findings would be used to inform the importance of CHI services in public libraries, and to design and develop CHI services in Korea.

• Asian Pacific Journal of Cancer Prevention
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.2913-2921
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• 2012

Introduction: The impact of cervical cancer prevention programs depends on persuading women to go for screening and, if needed, treatment. As part of an evaluation of a pilot project in Indonesia, qualitative research was conducted to explore the factors that influence women's decisions regarding screening and treatment and to generate practical recommendations to increase service coverage and reduce loss to follow up. Methods: Research was conducted at 7 of the 17 public health centers in Karawang District that implemented the pilot project. Interviews and focus group discussions were held with 20 women, 20 husbands, 10 doctors, 18 midwives, 3 district health officials, and 16 advocacy team members. Results: Free services and mobile outreach events encouraged women to go for screening, along with promotional efforts by community health workers, advocacy teams, and the mass media. Knowledge and perceptions were the most important barriers to screening: women were not aware of cervical cancer risks, did not know the disease was treatable, and were fatalistic. Factors facilitating treatment were social support from husbands, relatives, and friends and the encouragement and role modeling of health workers. Barriers to prompt treatment included limited access to services and the requirement for husband's consent for cryotherapy. Conclusion: As cervical cancer prevention services are scaled up throughout Indonesia, the findings suggest three strategies to expand screening coverage and ensure prompt treatment: strengthening community mobilization and advocacy activities, modifying the service delivery model to encourage a single visit approach to screening and treatment, and working to gain men's support.

• Korean Journal of Community Nutrition
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.103-114
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• 2017

Objectives: This study aims to investigate the married female immigrants' experience on Korean dietary life adaptation, especially identifying the symbolic meaning and nature of experiences. Methods: This study was conducted with six married female immigrants through an analysis of the qualitative materials which consisted of in-depth interviews, field notes and materials. Data was analyzed using Giorgi's phenomenological research methods. Results: The results were deduced as 116 significant statements, 17 formulated meanings (sub-theme), and 6 theme clusters. Six theme clusters comprised of lack of preliminary knowledge and information, conflict and support in relationships, Korean food culture which is different from homeland, adaptation attitudes of Korean food culture according to situation, sharing of homeland food culture, and practical difficulty and expectative service. The participants started Korean life in the dark about Korea and Korean food culture, so they were subjected to trial and error. The conflict between Korean mother-in-law and foreign daughter-in-law came from lack of consideration of daughter-in-law's cultural background. Some participants were hurt because of misunderstanding and nitpicking. They were learning about cooking method, ingredient, seasoning, table setting and manner. Some participants integrated Korean food culture and their homeland food culture. Some of them assimilated with Korean food culture. One of them maintained homeland food culture. The participants who adapted Korean food culture well could share homeland food amicably. They sometimes didn't apply the services which were offered by the government, because the services did not fit their needs. Some of them didn't know the usage route of the services or information. They had resistance about home teaching and it showed that outreach service was not always effective. Conclusions: This study suggested that it is necessary to develop a practical support plan which covers married female immigrants' real needs and system improvement measures.